Jason Fuesting

For any future followers that find their way to following this account, if you have questions about my books, be it about a character, scene, event, or really any part of the world building, feel free to ask about it. I like the engagement; just be forewarned you might get spoilers.

What Rubio said.

@planefag Funny thing, while I was in Japan as a reservist back in the day, I made a point out of chewing the ass of every shithead American tourist I ran into. Not a Marine though. Did get a few thank-yous from locals though :)

To the Japanese bros: when I see videos of American tourists acting atrociously in Japan, I get the feeling "if I saw that, I'd kick their ass!" But if I caused an even bigger commotion by doing that it would be bad, so I suppose I would wait for the police. Still, it would feel like I'm refusing to pick up my own trash in someone else's home. So I've come up with an alternative - US Embassies and consulates should set up a phone hotline, and when misbehaving tourists are reported, we will send Marines to collect them, take them somewhere private, and give them a proper beating to correct their attitude. This way we can act as proper guests should, and ensure our tax dollars are fixing the problems we cause instead of putting more work on the Japanese police.

You know, writing can be a bit of a roller coaster. Working on the first three books in my sci-fi series, I was ecstatic when I hit the point I could consistently hit 2k words a day. When I started Dusk Knight, I pushed that to 3k/day... then, I hit the end of the second or third chapter and it suddenly felt like I was taking dictation. I pounded out 100k words in 5-6 days. The back half, things calmed down, but now I could manage 5k a day without breaking much of a sweat. Then life happened. Sleep apnea started the party, then my blood sugar and my blood pressure both got high. Treating the apnea left me with a massive case of ADHD. I didn't realize it at first, but my ADHD meds choked off my ability to write creatively over the next few months and my productivity dropped to zero and stayed there. I just thought I'd lost me edge, that my muse had abandoned me. Fast forward almost two years and COVID's lasting gift, supply chain disruption, helped me figure out my meds were the root cause. What started off as an involuntary pause ended up with me forswearing the ADHD meds altogether. Inside of a month, I was back at 1k/day. Two months, 2k. I was up to 3k/day when Eric died and I went back to 0 for a while. That was the start of February. I'm lucky to hit 2k, but I'm getting better. I'd just like to get back to the Dusk Knight days, in more ways than one.

@CynicalPublius @infantrydort I mean, he did just say the they were going to be friends... $20 is $20, right? :D

@infantrydort When I hear you say that I keep hearing an Infantryman saying "Geez it sucks here, I wish it would suck more."

@infantrydort OPSEC? What's that? ;D There's a Navy SEAL joke in there somewhere, but we'll have to wait, they're still writing the book. ;)

OPSEC!?!? Hello!?!?

@DataRepublican @infantrydort A shitty shorthand when a halfway competent person would have used "DataRepublican't." Probably didn't have a long enough attention span to type it all. ;)

@infantrydort What's a DataCannot? lol

Nah, his chief sin is willfully chosing to believe the pleasant lie he was taught and deliberately going out of his way to ignore any and all evidence he was lied to in the first place. Idiots can be taught better. Jack, on the other hand, needs a bit firmer hand to keep him from averting his eyes from the cold reality that belies his Disney level understanding.

@infantrydort @McCainJack Two Afghan women asked my female S-2 if she could BUY THEM from their husband (same husband) and take them back to America. Jack is worse than an idiot--he is an idiot who does not know he is an idiot.

Jack you’re not the moral authority on what an Afghan is @McCainJack . You keep highlighting virtuous examples of them. Cool. You’re highlighting Afghan pilots who had higher IQ and can therefore understand terms like honor and right/wrong. I was an advisor to these people. The rank and file. So when I call these people barbarians, I fucking mean it with every fiber of my being. You assume too much. And you’re talking with way too much authority and shaming others for their JUSTIFIED views on these people. You simp for less than 1% of Afghans who are justifiably good people and smart. Then you extrapolate it to include the whole country. I’m here to tell you that you don’t speak for us, especially the average Infantryman who suffered in the dirt and dust with these “people” 12-15 months at a time. Stop belittling others or I’ll happily belittle you.

@infantrydort Sounds like the sort of dependa who thinks she has her husband's rank, IMO.

@JohnBailey64182 @VikingRobVWO Thanks to this guy, not nearly as many.

@FuestingJason @VikingRobVWO Even Japan has Democrats, Jason... 🤣

So after a full day of observation, I have a take to drop. I don't think the Japanese people are "racist" at all. When you visit or stay in their country, they expect a level of decorum in the area of respect, reserved quiet behavior and stoicism, and that their customs and courtesies to include hygiene and personal conduct be adhered to. Those acting like a fool regardless of skin color or national origin will be frowned upon. If you move to Japan, you need to assimilate to their culture fully and embrace it, not exploit it. This isn't racist, it's reasonable. This should be normal everywhere.

@DataRepublican I’m seeing Japan and Japan related stuff all over my feed, and I love it☺️

You'll probably love it there. I spent two weeks in Sasebo as a reservist in the late 2000s, and everything was startlingly clean for being in a city. Was mildly weirded out that it felt exactly like being in an anime, though with 100% less random ninja attacks, tentacles, Godzilla, and the like. ;)

Hello Japanese friends, I see my fellow Americans are posting about meat. I would like to thank you for making manuls popular, the delightful chubby and fluffy wildcats. My bookmarks are full of pictures of Lev, Polly, Nar, Lotus, Oliva and more Japanese stars. My number one dream is to go to Nasu Animal Kingdom and see all the manuls and eat at the Cafe Manuru Numa.

Yep. I'm sure if InfantryDort, Rob, or a few others in this circle actually read most of my posts here, they probably at some point wondered why I have such an axe to grind when it comes to "leadership." This was the first torpedo to the waterline that started changing my default outlook for those senior to me, rank-wise. I wish I could look back twenty years later and say I overreacted and was just a disgruntled shitbag, but the next 5 years at Second Fleet weren't any better. It's a remarkably disheartening experience when you realize the people you used to look up to aren't worth the veneration you gave them and that most of them should not have been trusted with their positions in the first place.

@FuestingJason @infantrydort That sucks. During selection, my son avoided women like the plague. None of the women survived selection, BTW.

Do you know why confrontation is almost dead in the military? Because the results speak for themselves. DEI policies were a major driver. EO, SHARP, and a maze of stifling "protections" gave certain groups unspoken immunity from correction. The result? It didn’t stop with minorities. It spread everywhere. Leaders didn’t want to seem hypocritical. So they just… stopped correcting anyone. Better to do nothing than risk your career am I right? 😡 Sure, results vary by unit. Some strongholds of real leadership still exist, but they are outliers. How do you know confrontation has been dying?: 1. There are fat Soldiers everywhere, and a Corps CSM got investigated simply for pointing it out. 2. Almost nobody confronted senior leaders over the COVID mandate, except a few who fell on their swords and were cast out. 3. Where was the confrontation when the Afghanistan withdrawal was planned and executed? 4. Look at the uniform standards on most bases today, disheveled, ignored, untouchable. Even the Army's new Commander’s Assessment Program made confrontation risky. Because subordinate evaluations are weighted so heavily, leaders fear truth telling will kill their careers. The truth is simple: We have plenty of standards. Many just stopped enforcing them. But here’s the good news: Leadership qualities trickle down. We become miniature versions of our senior leaders, for better or worse. And right now, you are witnessing confrontation return to the Pentagon itself. The SECDEF is loosening policies that once forced leaders to "walk on eggshells". The unspoken muzzle is being ripped off. The message is clear: It’s safe to come out now. It’s safe to enforce standards again. It’s safe to lead. Confrontation isn’t cruelty, t’s love wearing armor. If you love your Soldiers, you sharpen them, not spare them. If you love your country, you stand against what’s rotting it from within. If you love the profession of arms, you confront yourself first, without mercy, without excuse. Weak men avoid confrontation. Strong men live by it, because they know the cost of silence is death.

Me: do we have plans next weekend? Wife: It’s Easter but we’re free Saturday. Why? Me: I may have invited a few people over for bbq Wife: who? Me: Wife: Me: Wife: who? Me: uh…Japan Wife: Japanese people? Me: Yes Wife: How many are coming? Me: all of them Wife: What do you mean “all”? All of who? Me: Japan. About 122m or so Wife: Me: Wife: we don’t have enough chairs

I also feel compelled to point out that not did leadership not care that she lied and chose not to do anything when that was proven out... they turned a blind eye, multiple times, to her shenanigans trying to get at me afterwards as well. She claimed I was stalking her during the investigation. Thank God the only time I left the barracks was with the one friend I still had after everyone just assumed she was telling the truth, and I never suggested our destination, he did. If anything, the number of times she magically appeared wherever we went, she was stalking me. Command didn't care because *I* was the problem child. She claimed she was afraid of me and demanded a no-contact order, which she was granted... and then when we graduated from the core school and got to pick orders and which A-School we went to, she swapped orders to get in my class. She then spent literally the entire length of A-School spreading rumors and character assassination against me, of which I had zero recourse. Nobody would tell her to shut up, but I knew damn well that if I responded in kind, it would be taken as violating orders. It was bad enough that one of the instructors pulled me aside on the last day of class and apologized to me for how "leadership" had handled the situation. In fact, the only "leadership" that had my back were the NCOs/SNCOs in charge of the barracks, because I'd actually worked with them. I remember getting pulled into the BPO office before I made it across the quarterdeck when I came back from my 3 hour asschewing with the School SNCO the MPs hooked me up with. Chief asked me point blank, "I just got off the phone with the school. They had a lot of interesting things to say about you. So, did you do it?" Looked the guy right in the eye. "Honestly, Chief? After the ass-chewing Senior Chief just gave me, I'm kinda wishing I did. I never touched her, but after everything today, I'm sorely tempted."

@FuestingJason @infantrydort Leadership catches more heat for treating SHARP claims skeptically than for rubberstamping them. As my son reported, some of the falsely accused guys were simply booted out.

@Mike___Kilo @infantrydort I was told point blank the only reason I wasn't flushed off-hand was that I held the top grade in my class, and of the 200+ people expected to graduate that push, I was in the top 10 academically.

I nearly had my career float tested while I was still in A-School back in 2000. Was a ton of fun getting pulled out of class by the MPs because my soon-to-be ex-GF decided to make up some shit and tell them I beat the hell out of her. That experience was the start of my distrust for anyone in a leadership position because they absolutely did not care that she lied, and spent the next month doing their best to pin my ass to the wall like a butterfly. Only reason I didn't end up with a big chicken dinner is a combination of lack of evidence and the fact I had too many witnesses testifying to my character and her lack of the same.

The smarter male recruits completely avoid interacting with female recruits for fear of getting SHARPed. Just making eye contact with them is dangerous. The women routinely - and manipulatively - report the men. They’ll say “I’ll SHARP you!” The accused men are presumed guilty. They have to prove their innocence. And their military careers are over before they really ever started.

@infantrydort A knife-hand a day keeps the retards away.

Normalize confrontation again.

@johnkonrad I mean, you could say the merchant marines are a legit cargo cult though. :p Difference from the general cargo cult usage being they actually have cargo. ;)

@FuestingJason Story of my life too

My most common criticism goes something like this: “John, some of your articles and posts are very well written and thought out, but then you post something ‘unhinged’ and lose all credibility.” That’s by design. Let me explain. Infantry Dort is forcing my hand here, so I’m going to expose my greatest secret for success. Roman stoics wisdom is timeless but very difficult to read…. So years ago I wrote a colloquial translation of Seneca’s “On the Shortness of Life” using modern language and examples. I couldn’t get it published, but @RyanHoliday read it, came to sea (yes on a boat) with me, and later developed a far better formula of his own with “Daily Stoic.” Today Ryan does a fantastic job with all stoics but way back then I started with shortness on the advice of @tferriss and @neilstrauss because it’s THE most powerful stoic advice. It’s THE most important work in history for productivity and purpose. Seneca’s core lesson is simple: time is short & the world is conspiring to take it from you. That leads to the most important tip: You MUST separate the bullsh!t from real opportunities of value in your life. When you reach a certain level of success you get showered with awards, think tank invitations, speaking opportunities, cocktail parties, black tie events, TV gigs, etc. 90% of these (99% for industry award dinners) are total wastes of your time. They can bring you money but they snowball into more BS opportunities until, one day, you have no time left for research & deep thought. @RadioFreeTom is the best example. Once a great naval academic, now a man who wastes enormous amounts of time getting his ego stroked and his wallet filled. There is nothing wrong with getting paid. More exposure is always valuable. But only if it advances your purpose in life. That’s what Seneca teaches. When you are on your deathbed, will you die peacefully because you invested your time & money and influence in doing good? Or did you waste all those opportunities chasing applause? It sounds easy but it’s not. At the highest level, CEOs, think tank presidents, TV producers, and event organizers are REALLY good at telling you they want to advance your core work. But most just want to cash in on your success or drive a hidden agenda. So how do you separate those who truly want to help you improve the world from those who really just want to use you to improve their event, advance their hidden agenda, or line their pockets with fraud? There are several ways but I find brutal honesty the best. TRUTH angers people. It’s not polite. It doesn’t serve alternate agendas. Speak it often enough & you will be labeled “toxic” and ALL the bullshit invitations will evaporate. Hammer on the nail of truth with some dumb memes, a “crazy” hypothesis & a few impolite replies & all the wrong types of people will ostracize you. No political appointments. No flying to Denver to give a 6min speech. No waiting an hour in a green room for your TED talk or MSM appearance. No figuring out which fake trophy to hang on your wall. Believe me, I’ve done them all. The I drove them all away. It’s scary but opportunities won’t dry up completely. Serious journalists, serious world leaders, CEOS, actual (not internet) influencers with REAL problems will reach out. They will reach out despite your unhinged posts, not because of them. They will reach out because, while the Tom Nichols of the world are wasting time on an MSNBC panel or writing another BS book about his own feelings, you did real research. You will build a friend group of people like Dort & @DataRepublican and @CynicalPublius who will call out your own BS because they care more about solving hard problems than stroking your ego or lining pockets. My “unhinged” posts are a filter. They hammer down points of truth while making me “toxic” to every institution that wants to waste my time. The people who matter? They find you anyway. And when they do, you start fixing REAL problems together.